After the Indian Premier League from BCCI, Cricket Australia(CA) also want to launch its own version of a privately funded Twenty20 competition similar to the IPL. But the league will not be at the expense of Future Tours Program(FTP).

In a program for Fox Sports,Cricket Australia’s acting chief executive Michael Brown said ,”We always look at new ideas. We remain committed to international tours, but we are also aware of what Allen Stanford is planning in the West Indies with Twenty20, as is the International Cricket Council. We will also be monitoring the new IPL competition, which is about to start in India. It will be a case of suck it and see.”

Brown also said ,”We’ve seen tremendous growth and interest in our own domestic (Twenty20 competition) KFC Big Bash. The competition has been a huge success, averaging crowds of between 12,000 and 15,000. But at the moment we are dealing in hypotheticals. We remain committed to our future tours policy, that is the game’s bread and butter.”

Brown’s comments assume significance in the wake of reports that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is in talks with American billionaire Stanford to discuss the creation of a Twenty20 tournament similar to the IPL in England.

The ECB said that it was considering detailed proposals from Stanford, who set up the Stanford Twenty20 tournament in the Caribbean.

The inaugural IPL has attracted many of the world’s leading players, including Australians Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee, Mathew Hayden, Andrew Symonds, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. Also the biggest thing that has attracted the various cricket boards is money because no other series can bring that amount of money which only few twenty20 matches having superstars of various countries can do.